Studies have shown that the dorsum of the tongue is one of the main foci of microorganisms in the oral cavity. These microorganisms are responsible for a variety of harmful oral diseases and plaque build up. However, studies have also shown that the total bacterial count on the dorsum of the tongue can be reduced by as much as 50% after only one day of mechanical tongue scraping, as compared to one week of tongue brushing that would be necessary to achieve the same result.
Mechanical tongue scrapers are well known for scraping to clean the dorsal or upper surface of the tongue and generally comprise a handle having formed at one end a cross bar with a scraping edge. To clean the tongue, the handle is inserted into the mouth so that the scraping edge contacts the back or inner end of the tongue with the handle protruding from the mouth and held to apply a firm downward force. The instrument held in this position is drawn forwardly along the tongue so that foreign bacteria stripped from the tongue by the scraping edge is propelled upwardly from the edge to collect on a surface of the cross bar formed adjacent the edge. Of course, once the instrument is removed from the mouth after cleaning the tongue, the stripped foreign matter is washed from the scraper bar and the cleaning operation is then repeated. More specifically, because of the width of the tongue relative to the length of the scraping edge, three cleaning steps are usually performed. In the first step, the scraping edge is applied to clean sides or convex marginal portions of the tongue in separate cleaning strokes. The center depressed area (which merges laterally through upwardly and outwardly sloping areas into the convext marginal portions) is then cleaned. If this operation is performed daily or at other frequent intervals, harmful accumulations of foreign matter can be avoided, tongue pipillae will be maintained in a healthy condition, and the discomfort and objectionable odor from such harmful accumulations can be avoided.
Tongue scrapers of which I am aware generally include either one or two handles. With single handle models, one end of the handle is formed with a pair of bifurcated arms with the transverse scraping bar connected to free ends thereof. A problem associated with this single handle instrument is that the handle which extends along the central longitudinal axis of the instrument is normally placed on the central portion of the tongue when the scraping edge initially contacts the back of the tongue. Contact between the handle and tongue causes undesirable and involuntary upward flexing of the tongue tending to disengage the scraping edge from the tongue. Thus, with single handle models, the scraping edge is elevated above certain portions of the tongue due to involuntary tongue flexing caused by the single handle, resulting in incomplete tongue cleaning.
Double handle tongue scrapers generally comprise a thin strip of flexible resilient material (e.g., metal) prebent into a U-shape to establish a pair of handles connected by a central curved tongue scraping portion. Since the handles diverge outward from the curved scraping portion, these handles usually do not contact the tongue during scraping, avoiding the aforesaid problem associated with single handle instruments. However, since both handles are gripped to draw the scrapping portion forwardly along the tongue, disengagement of portions of the scraping edge with the tongue frequently occurs due to the inherent flexibility of the handles. In other words, as the gripped handles are brought forward out of the mouth during cleaning, there is a tendency by the user to exert a twisting force on the handles causing the aforesaid separation. Furthermore, since there is a continuous curvature between the handles and the scraping portions, portions of the handles formed adjacent the scraping portion contact the tongue causing the aforesaid involuntary flexing of the tongue to occur, resulting in partial separation of the scraping edge with the tongue surface.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a tongue cleaning and scraping instrument to extend preventative hygiene of the oral cavity to effective cleaning and massaging of the dorsal mucosa so as to loosen and remove entrapped pathogenic foreign matter and, through abrasive engagement, maintain the papillae in a healthy condition.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tongue scraper having a pair of handles arranged to avoid contact with the tongue during tongue cleaning so that the scraping edge remains in full contact with portions of the tongue as the handles are brought forward by the user out of the mouth.
Still another object is to provide a tongue scraper having handles that are easily and comfortably gripped by the user and are configured to resist twisting by the user so that the scraping edge remains in complete contact with desired portions of the tongue.
Yet a further object is to provide a tongue scraper wherein the handles are configured to maximize the effective length of the scraping edge that resists the tendency to separate from portions of the tongue during cleaning.